


The Knight and the Lion

by j_whirl44



Series: The Knight and the Lion [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 8x04, Angst, Brienne's POV, F/M, Fluff and Angst, listen i get WHY Jaime is doing this but also....why is he doing this, with a lil Sansa POV towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:55:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_whirl44/pseuds/j_whirl44
Summary: Brienne notices Jaime's distance, as much as the both of them try to ignore it.





	The Knight and the Lion

**Author's Note:**

> much like everyone else i had......feelings after 8x04 and so i wrote about em !  
> enjoy (i guess)

Jaime had barely said a word to Brienne since she told him about King’s Landing. They sat in her small, silent filled room and ate their food, a commonplace activity shared between them over the past few months. Albeit usually with more romantic glances and sly smiles.

She wanted to ask, but was afraid she’d already knew the answer. She wasn’t stupid, she knew that his sister is always in the back of his mind. When he tells stories about growing up she’s always there in some capacity, and whenever he talks about her there’s a rush of different emotions that flash across his face all within a second of each other. But when that happens she reaches for his hand and squeezes, and the look on his face then is nothing but utter adoration.

The silence grows longer and longer and she’s about to question him until she looks up to see him already staring at her with a tired face. He leans in and kisses her.

It’s a tender kiss, almost as if Jaime is scared of breaking her. Brienne can feel the want and need behind it. It’s a slow kiss; almost like he’s trying to savor it.

He pulls away but they’re still close enough so their eyes have to cross to look at each other.

Brienne thought maybe she was safe. They were safe. She kissed him this time. With a little more urgency that seemed to give Jaime the push he needed. He trailed his lips down her neck and stopped only long enough for them to move to their bed.

They laid there entangled with one another, his hand was tracing up and down her arm as she rested her head on his chest.

There was still that blank expression on his face that was painfully unreadable to Brienne.

“What are you thinking about?” she finally asked.

Jaime looked down at her, seemingly started by her voice. He smiled, “Oh just about how beautiful you are.”

She snorted, slapping his chest, “You’d be an awfully good jester,” she said. He kissed the top of her head. Things almost felt like normal.

Almost.

Brienne noticed how tense he was, how easily he deflected that question. How his breathing felt staggered and short. She clinged to him tighter and thought back to their first night together all those moons ago.

How their kisses were so passionate and hungry. How their hands searched practically every part of each others bodies. How she felt so nervous but not a nervous she felt before. It was exciting and raw and real and right now she wished to go back to that night.

Jaime shifted underneath her as he laid down. They locked eyes.

“It’s time to sleep, Ser Brienne,” he said with a slight smile. She returned it with a smile of her own. He kissed her again, another slow, light kiss that made her feel like she only weighed a feather. They parted and Jaime gave her one last look before turning towards the ceiling and closing his eyes. Brienne followed suit, trying to forget the pain behind that stare.

She woke to the sound of the door closing and the spot next to her empty. A pit formed in her stomach as she got up and put on her nightgown. The bitter air hitting her as soon as she left their room.  
She shivered.

She heard the sound of someone’s horse near the gate, as well as the clicks and pulls of someone saddling it up. She turned the corner and her heart leapt and her stomach dropped.

There stood Jaime Lannister, preparing his horse for a journey. A journey, she guessed, he didn’t want her on.

It was about her. Cersei. It always was.

He didn’t look at her at first. It wasn’t until she grabbed his face from either side and forced him to. He looked scared and sad. She ached.

“You’re a good man and you can’t save her,” she pleaded. Brienne hoped some of this was getting through to him.

It had to. Otherwise he was a dead man the second he turned out the gate.

“Stay here. Stay with me. Please.”

She was cracking. Her voice breaking as she tried to hold in the emotion.

Jaime looked at her, he brought up his hand and wrapped it around her wrist, ever so slightly he stroked it.

But then he removed her hands from a face and swallowed hard. His face lost emotion.

“You think I’m a good man?” Jaime proposed. She held her breath. “I pushed a boy out a tower window, crippled him for life. For Cersei”

Her name stung Brienne; but she held her ground.

He continued, “I strangled my cousin with my own hands. Just to get back to Cersei.”

There’s that name again.

“I would’ve murdered every man, woman, and child in Riverrun. For Cersei.”

Brienne wanted to grovel on the ground. She wanted to get down on her knees and kiss his feet and beg him to stay more. She didn’t though. She held her ground as he tried to tear her down.

“She’s hateful. And so am I.”

Before she could respond he got on his horse and she out let a sob. The horse’s trot mocked her.

She stood there frozen and crying as she watched one of the only men she ever loved leave her for the only woman he’ll ever love.

 

The next day Sansa found her sitting over near the gate, not far from where she was the night before. Noticing the paleness on her face, Sansa was about to approach her until she heard a voice behind her.

“He left her,” she turned to see Bran looking up at his sister.

Sansa paused before speaking slightly shocked, “He what?”

“It was the only way,” Bran replied.

Sansa looked back over to her knight, then back to Bran, “The only way for what?”

Bran looked at Brienne, “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you,” he said.

Sansa looked out in front of her, trying to understand what Bran was saying.

“It’s her fate, Cersei’s,” he continued, “He is the Kingslayer after all.”

Now Sansa understood. Her resentment for the man turned to pity.

“He’s going to kill her,” Sansa said, looking at Bran.

“He’s going to try,” Bran responded.

Sansa looked over to Brienne once more and shook her head. She walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Brienne jumped at the contact but calmed when she saw who it was.

“Lady Sansa, I’m sorry-”

“Don’t apologize, there’s no need for that,” Sansa interrupted.

Brienne paused, “Ser Jaime is-” Brienne began, but couldn’t finish.

“I know that too. I’m sorry,” Sansa said as she gave her shoulder one last squeeze before walking away.

 

Brienne sat there for a long time. She resented the fact that a part of her was waiting there, hoping he’d come to his senses and come home. That he’d come back to her.

Out of all his harmful words last night the one where he called himself a hateful man kept replaying in her head.

The Jaime Brienne knew wasn’t hateful. Not even close.

The Jaime Brienne knew saved her from a grizzly bear, saved her from be defiled by Bolton’s men.

The Jaime Brienne knew held her in the middle night when they both awoke from night terrors about the battle with the dead they had not so long ago.

The Jaime Lannister Brienne of Tarth knew wasn’t a hateful man. He was a changed man.

Or so she thought.

There was many thoughts swirling in her brain, the biggest one being she hoped she’d be able to see her Jaime again.

And she’d hoped she would be able to forgive him.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways can't wait for Jaime to kill Cersei and run back to Brienne so they can shove off and be happy and in love with no more fighting and war !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


End file.
